


Silence is Golden

by SugarQueen



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Adorable Mori, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Happy Ending, Misunderstandings, Oblivious Haruhi, Observant!Hunny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 19:36:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13083927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarQueen/pseuds/SugarQueen
Summary: Morinozuka Takashi is known for his silence. He has never really needed to talk much. His extremely observant cousin can read him like a book and translate him for the world. But what happens when Mori finally finds a reason to use his own voice instead of relying on Hunny? Mori is about to learn the hard way that communication takes practice, especially when trying to talk to Fujioka Haruhi!





	1. Uh Oh!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!  
> I apologize in advance for my terrible writing! This is my first ever fanfiction but I just love this ship so much that I felt it needed more representation. Constructive criticism is appreciated! Just as a heads up, I don't like dark stories so this one is probably going to be super lighthearted and hopefully funny!

Ouran high school host club, a club where handsome boys with too much time on their hands entertain girls who also have way too much time on their hands. But more than that, it was where Morinozuka Takashi spent his afternoons with his best friends.  
"Takashi!!!" he heard. As he turned around his cousin, Mitskuni aka Hunny, launched himself into Mori’s arms.  
"Want some cake?" Hunny only paused for a second before declaring "We can both have strawberry!" Most people assumed that Hunny's high speed chatter was one directional. Most people didn't account for how close the two were. For instance, in that one second pause, Hunny could read Mori well enough to know that he thought 'I know you love cake, Mitskuni, but you need fruit too. However, it has been a long day and cake does sound nice.' Mori wasn’t sure when he first started leaving his thoughts unsaid. It probably happened slowly over time as he and Hunny grew up together. Hunny was far more perceptive than people gave him credit for. As they grew, it was just easier to let Hunny read him than having to spell out his thoughts all the time. It never bothered him that Hunny was the only one of his friends who COULD read him. Hunny translated Mori for the world and Mori helped Hunny stay focused despite his attention constantly being caught by everything around him. Mori knew people thought the twins were stuck in their own little world but honestly, Mitskuni and Mori weren't much better.  
The two boys were about to go have their cake when the door to Music Room 3 opened. In walked a fairly plain looking boy. For some reason, Mori’s heart skipped a beat.  
‘Uh oh. Where did that come from?’ Hunny obviously noticed how Mori froze. His gaze followed Mori’s to the boy, who was currently being harassed by Tamaki, King of the Host Club. Hunny was curious and, having an inquisitive mind, immediately went to introduce himself. When the poor boy accidentally broke the vase for auction, Mori barely noticed. What he did notice was how the boy’s figure seemed svelte and soft beneath those oversized clothes. How when their eyes met he felt a light electric shock. It wasn't the only shock he felt. While Mori had never really been attracted to anyone before, he was pretty sure he wasn't gay! He personally had no problems with it but he strongly hoped he wasn't. His family was very loving and accepting but being openly gay as a martial artist did not appeal to Mori at all.  
While Mori stood to the side having an identity crisis, he missed several of his club-mates coming to a realization that would have been very helpful to him. It wasn't until the boy’s voice (seriously why did his voice have to be so musical) called out in alarm that Mori snapped out of his fog of confusion. He’d spent his life training to be able to help others, so when Haruhi called out for help Mori responded instinctively, physically lifting her from Tamaki's grasp. Mori’s eyes widened as he lifted her. No boy had curves like hers. In his surprise, he continued to hold her until she had to ask to be put down. As Mori let her go, he felt a slightly abandoned. Hunny was by his side in a moment. "Takashi?" One look at Mori’s face was enough to tell him everything.


	2. On his own

While he was nowhere near as observant as Hunny, Mori liked to think he was at least mildly perceptive. Thus, he was disgusted with himself that it had taken him so long to realize Haruhi was a girl! His only solace was that he wasn’t the last one to notice. Predictably, it was Tamaki who earned that dubious honor. He only figured it out once he saw Haruhi in a dress. Tamaki’s blush irritated Mori as much as it worried him. Mori was all too aware of how over-the-top Tamaki could get and Haruhi seemed like a down to earth person. He hoped she wouldn’t be too overwhelmed by everything.  
As club hours ended, everyone prepared to go home. Mori felt antsy, unable to calm down. Hunny, unsurprisingly, was the only one to notice. As he walked out with Mori, he slowed them down enough to fall out of earshot of the others. Mori shot him a look. Hunny sighed and replied “Yes. I figured out she was a girl almost immediately. I’m sorry I didn’t point it out but I wanted to see how long it took Tama-chan to figure it out! Kyo-chan noticed too.”  
Mori didn’t look at him. For the first time in his life, he didn’t want Hunny to guess what was on his mind. Mori was known for his calm demeanor. He was unused to inner turmoil. But here he was, emotions whirling. He was irritated, slightly at Hunny for not telling him but mostly at himself for being so slow. He was a martial artist, he was trained to read people for crying out loud! He also felt confused. He had never really been attracted to someone before, how could he be starting to feel attached to a girl who was essentially a stranger to him? He didn’t believe in love at first sight, and he was fully aware he did not love her, but his parents had been friends for years before their relationship had blossomed into anything more. He didn’t like to think that he was shallow. Mori has always assumed it would he someone’s personality that attracted him and that he had never been attracted to anyone because he hadn’t met the right personality yet. Having his heart skip a beat and being distracted enough to question his own sexuality when he had never had a conversation with the person was a foreign concept to him.  
Unfortunately for Mori, Hunny had spent most of his life interpreting Mori’s limited body language. He could pretty much tell what he was thinking. Hunny gave him some time to sort out his thoughts and feelings before he interrupted Mori’s thoughts. Hunny knew Mori tended to be too hard on himself and could guess the direction his thoughts would be headed. When Hunny gauged that Mori was about to enter a downward spiral of self-loathing, probably thinking he was superficial, Hunny intervened.   
“Takeshi, you aren’t shallow!” Mori gave him a skeptical look. Hunny continued. “Really! It’s normal to think someone is pretty. It’s only shallow if you ONLY like them for their looks. Do you only like Haru-chan because she’s pretty?”  
Mori thought about it. Haruhi was definitely pretty. She had to be smart to have earned the scholarship. Her handling of Tamaki and the twins proved that she was patient and kind. But did he truly like her? He couldn’t tell. He was certainly interested in her though. Hunny smiled at him.  
“I didn’t think so! You know what you have to do now right?” When Mori kept looking at him blankly, Hunny’s smile turn just a bit mischievous.   
“You have to get to know her better!” It took a full 30 seconds before the implication sunk in. Mori’s face lit up in alarm. “You won’t help me?” he gasped.  
Hunny shook his head. “I’ll always help you Takashi! You’re my best friend and family. But you need to get to know Haruhi on your own and she needs to get to know you. I think this will be a good thing! Think of it like training! You’re really strong at martial arts but you are weak at dealing with people. The only way to get better is to practice!” With that, Hunny skipped ahead to catch back up with the others who were almost to where their cars picked them up. Mori continued to lag behind. To the casual observer he looked just as stoic as ever but inside he was reeling. How on earth was he supposed to get to know Haruhi better when he had no clue how to start a conversation on his own?


	3. Practice Makes Perfect

When Mori got home he headed straight to the meditation room. It was where he always went to clear his mind. Hunny was right. He was desperately out of practice at dealing with people. One strategy he used when preparing for a tournament was visualization. He figured it was as good a place as any to begin practicing his social skills. Sitting down, he began his mediation.  
In his mind, he visualized Haruhi. He was sitting next to her on the couch in the club room. “Uh… H-Hi Haruhi.” Ugh. Even in his own mind he couldn’t talk to her properly. Maybe he should just power through and try to get all his thoughts in order.  
“Haruhi. Hi. It was nice to meet you today. And not just because you are pretty. But I don’t only think you are pretty! But you are smart and nice and patient and interesting and I really want to get to know you better. And I hope you can get to know me better too. But only if you want to. I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. Not that I know you well enough to know what you’d want!”  
Mori forced himself to stop. That had gotten very awkward very fast. At least he’d made it more than one word before he’d become a stuttering mess. ‘Maybe visualization is too advanced’ he thought, fully realizing how pathetic that was. Another way to learn was to watch an expert. Who was an expert at social situations? When the idea struck him, he blanched. Satoshi, his little brother, had quite a collection of manga. Specifically, shojo manga. Now, Mori knew enough to know that shojo manga wasn’t very realistic but they had whole series dedicated to nothing but various social interactions. Surely not all of it could be outrageous, right?  
One hour and 3 volumes later Mori was emotionally drained. Satoshi had been happy to let Mori borrow his manga once he realized Mori actually planned to read it and not tease him like Chika did. Mori decided that trying several series would give him the best shot at finding something useful. He had randomly pulled three different titles. Skip Beat was entertaining but not very relevant to his situation. Inuyasha was an interesting premise but when he saw that the sheer number of volumes was daunting enough to have him passing on volume 2. Kimi Ni Todoke, though, pulled him in. While he had thought he would relate to the hero he found the heroine, Kuronoma, seemed to be a kindred spirit. The series was about Kuronoma, a quiet girl who looked scary but was actually very conscientious and nice. It seemed the series followed her as she made friends and hopefully fell in love. He really wanted to keep reading it but it would be dinner time soon and Mori was the type to get totally engrossed in whatever he was reading. Sure enough, as he stood to return the books to his brother he heard his mother calling the family in to dinner. The Morinozuka family made it a point to eat dinner together at least 3 times a week, a luxury most of his friends rarely got to experience. After dinner, he would continue his research and come up with some strategies to use tomorrow. He’d need all his courage!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading so far guys! If anyone has anything they'd like to see happen let me know in the comments :)


	4. Non-verbal communication counts, right?

Mori liked to think he was fairly responsible. His homework was turned in on time, his room was clean, and Hunny never forgot to brush his teeth with Mori around. However, Mori didn’t feel very responsible today. Honestly, he didn’t feel anything except exhaustion. After dinner last night, he borrowed the rest of Kimi Ni Todoke from Satoshi. He had then proceeded to binge read almost 30 volumes. He had finished the last volume Satoshi had about 5 minutes before his alarm went off. So much for coming up with strategies to talk to Haruhi. When he’d first gotten to school, Hunny had taken one look at the deep bags under his eyes and his pale face and had inadvertently screamed “Zombie!”. If it was bad enough to startle Hunny, Mori knew he needed to avoid as many people as possible especially Haruhi! He texted Tamaki to let him know he’d be skipping out on club duties today.  
His phone buzzed a few minutes later. Ignoring the 7 emojis and one gif, Tamaki’s reply was “NOOOOOO! You can’t abandon our family! Avoiding family is bad for your karma!” Mori was too tired to deal with Tamaki’s endless energy. He simply responded “You’ve spent too much time around Nekozawa. My karma is fine.” before he walked into is classroom and turned off his phone.  
Class was not a productive as Mori would have liked. After the third time his teacher called him out for sleeping in class he was sent to the teachers’ lounge to make copies of the handout for everyone. His teacher told him the walk would give him time to wake up. Arriving at the lounge, Mori found himself on the business end of karma. Inside, making copies of what appeared to be the attendance sheet, was Haruhi. In his sleep-deprived state, Mori’s reflexes were too slow to close the door before she turned around to see who had entered the room. Her face brightened upon seeing him.  
“Mori-senpai! Good morning! What are you doing here?” Mori froze. He forgot everything from Kimi Ni Todoke. He forgot all his visualizations. He even forgot that he knew how to talk. In his panic, the best he could manage was to hold up the worksheet and point to the copier. He was instantly filled with self loathing. How had he forgotten how to TALK? Before he could run away… uhh retreat strategically… he heard her soft “Oh”. He looked back up at her. She smiled. “Don’t worry, Senpai. My last copy just finished. The machine is free now so you won’t have to miss more of class. See you later.” With that, she took her copies and walked out of the lounge. It took Mori a full minute to process what had just happened. He had just had a conversation with Haruhi. Wait, did it count even if he hadn’t actually said anything? He decided it didn’t matter. It wasn’t great but it was a place to start! He quickly made the copies and returned to class. He didn’t fall asleep again but he was so distracted he didn’t really learn anything. Maybe he wouldn’t skip out on the club after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all and thanks for reading! Sorry the chapters are so short. Next chapter Mori might actually get his first real conversation with Haruhi! If anyone has any feedback or things they'd like to see added then please comment :)


	5. Party Animal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly longer chapter this time! Sorry for the long wait!

Despite his exhaustion, Mori made it through the rest of the day without any more issues. He made it to the club room with just enough time to change into his tropical outfit. He had to hand it to Tamaki, he had really gone above and beyond. He had turned the club room into a tropical paradise. Mori also noticed that Haruhi had yet to arrive. Deciding to use the time to calm down, he helped Hunny into is outfit and joined the other hosts in preparing to welcome their visitors. The door opened and in walked a very disgruntled Haruhi. It didn’t take an observational genius like Hunny to see she wasn’t into the tropical atmosphere. She kept muttering about it still being early spring and a phrase that sounded suspiciously like “Damn rich people”. Mori didn’t know what to do. She was clearly not amused but he didn’t know how to make her feel better. As always, Hunny noticed. While Tamaki fruitlessly tried to tell Haruhi why a tropical environment was good for the club, Hunny pulled Mori aside. “Play with me Takashi!” he demanded.   
Mori had no reason to decline so he threw Hunny onto his shoulders and began sprinting around the room while Hunny laughed gleefully. This took his mind off Haruhi’s bad mood long enough for guests to start arriving. Considering they had just announced the upcoming party, it was no surprise that that was all the girls seemed to want to talk about. Mori took a break from all the chit chat to go get a pineapple for the girls. When he returned, Hunny climbed up him and put a necklace of the flowers around his neck while wearing his most adorable smile. Mori was confused. Hunny had told him earlier that he should wear the flowers since they didn’t really match his image. Looking up, he saw the scheming glint in Hunny’s eyes and noticed Haruhi staring at them. It seemed Hunny didn’t want Haruhi to get the false impression that Mori was standoffish. He silently thanked his cousin.  
Other than Kanako deciding to switch her affections to Haruhi, the rest of the club time passed fairly uneventfully. After the club, Tamaki was pouting. Mori didn’t know if it was because Kanako had left him or that he wanted Haruhi’s attention all for himself, but he suspected it was a little of both. Whatever the reason, his pouting eventually gave way to his typical passionate outbursts. Mori watched Haruhi as Tamaki demanded she go back to being a girl. Really, the king was so irrational. He had saddled the poor girl with a debt which she clearly intended to pay and now he was trying to take away the best way she had to pay it back? He clearly had no clue what Haruhi was like. Mori had only known her a few days but that was plenty to see how his demands would go over. He only made it worse when he pulled out the giant portrait of her. Predictably and understandably, Haruhi lost her temper. She then proceeded to tell the boys about how she’d decided to cut her hair short for convenience. While Tamaki cried, Mori approved. It took a person secure in who they were to not care about appearances. Not to mention, Mori discovered he had a thing for girls with short hair. If Tamaki only wanted her for her looks then he didn’t deserve her. Recovering from his crying spell, Tamaki blackmailed her into attending the upcoming party. With only a week to practice dancing, Haruhi was in for a rough time.  
As the club members left for the day, Mori gathered all of his courage. This was it. The perfect chance to talk to Haruhi. All of his training for martial arts meant that Mori was extremely graceful in addition to his natural talent for dancing. Despite having arranged for Haruhi to practice dancing with Kanako, Mori would offer to help too. After all a week wasn’t very long. Thankfully, Hunny seemed to guess Mori’s intentions and managed to herd the other hosts out of the room ahead of them. Mori took the opportunity his cousin had given him. “I can help.” In the time it took Haruhi to turn around and look at him, he managed to get his thoughts into some semblance of order. “Hunh?” Haruhi asked. Mori blushed, thankful that the darkened room his face. Why couldn’t he just be normal around her? Pulling his thoughts back to the current conversation, Mori explained. “With learning to dance. A week isn’t a lot of time. And practicing with more than one person will help too. Feel free to decline. I know you have lots of things to do outside of the club as well.”  
He didn’t know how he suddenly had the courage to talk to her but he couldn’t just let her struggle on her own! He would have offered to help her out even if he wasn’t attracted to her. She stood, obviously shocked at his speech, before she smiled at him. “Thanks, Senpai! I’ll need all the help I can get! Do you mind if we practice before school though? I have to get home at night to cook dinner for my dad.” Mori felt a brief swell of victory but he squashed it. Focus on helping her first before anything else. He was barely aware as they made plans to get to school an hour early tomorrow. He was too stunned that he had actually managed to talk to her. Tomorrow was going to be a very big day!


	6. Follow the leader

“Good morning, Senpai! I hope you didn’t have to wait for me too long!” Even Mori could tell she was worried she had inconvenienced him. He quickly assuaged her worries.  
“I just got here. Are you ready?” She smiled, relieved, and agreed. Mori led her to the clubroom. All the members had keys and no one else would be this early. Plus, it WAS a music room.

Mori walked over to the room’s sound system and plugged in his phone. Last night, he’d spent an hour creating a playlist of songs that were appropriate for waltzing. He hoped having music on before they even started dancing would help them both relax a little. He headed over to where Haruhi was waiting. “I’ll show you first. Then you try. Once you know the basic steps, I’ll act as your partner.” Haruhi nodded, her beautiful eyes focusing on him. He quickly turned around, both to demonstrate the steps and to hid his slight blush at her attention.

The steps for a basic waltz were fairly simple. Following a quick-quick-slow sequence the person essentially moved in a small square. He explained this to Haruhi while going through the motions. After a few repetitions, he stopped and turned back to face her. “Ready?” he asked. “As ready as I’ll ever be, Senpai.” Haruhi began to move through the steps he’d shown her.

While the steps weren’t wrong, Haruhi was very robotic in her movements and her timing with the music was off. Mori realized that she hadn’t been wrong when she’d told him she’d need all the help she could get. Despite this, Mori found the look of intense concentration on her face to be adorable and he let her continue a few more minutes than he’d originally planned. Eventually, he made himself interrupt her. “Good work Haruhi. The steps were right. Next we need to work on your timing and making the movements seem more fluid.” Haruhi groaned. “There’s a lot more to dancing than I thought. Maybe agreeing to this dance was a dumb idea.” Mori inwardly panicked. He didn’t want to miss out on dancing with her. Quickly, he replied “I wouldn’t give up just yet. It’s much easier with a partner.” 

Before she had a chance to respond, Mori took her in his arms and began to dance. He led her through the movements while he used the female steps. She gasped briefly when he grabbed her but almost immediately relaxed into him. It may have been the early morning light but her cheeks seemed slightly pink as he held her close. While she followed his lead, her movements were smooth and graceful. They spent the rest of the hour slowly dancing, the peaceful quiet filled only with the music.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all are enjoying the story so far! I'm thinking about making the next chapter from Haruhi's perspective. Let me know what you think :)


	7. Dancing Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is from Haruhi's perspective. Hopefully she isn't OOC!

Haruhi was annoyed. However, she knew her annoyance was a secondary emotion. She was annoyed because she was distracted. She had worked hard to get into this school and here she was wasting precious minutes of valuable education thinking about Mori. They’d had their first lesson today. Dancing had started out just as boring and a waste of time as she’d feared. Then, Mori had swept her into his arms (just remembering it still made her blush) and proceeded to show her how wrong she was. Dancing with Mori was a hard experience to put into words. It had felt like they were floating around in their own little world, lost in enjoying each other’s company. Dancing with him was… clearly distracting. Frowning, she forced herself to pay attention to the sensei. 

As usual, Haruhi ate her lunch alone in the classroom. She decided to use the time to collect her thoughts. She needed to figure out why Mori-senpai was so distracting. Maybe it wasn’t Mori. Maybe she was just starting to get sick. She was always distracted whenever she had a fever. It would explain why her face kept going red and hot. And her heart had been thumping a bit erratically, more than the light exercise of their dancing called for. That had to be it. Mind made up, she finished lunch then told her sensei she needed to go the nurse. She spent the rest of the afternoon resting in the nurse’s office. 

By the end of the day, Haruhi felt completely fine. Remembering how hard dancing had been, she decided to go to practice. The club was closed to visitors for the week so she could practice with Kanako. Knowing Kyoya-senpai, the lost profit would be added to her debt if she missed any of the practice time. With that in mind, she made her way to the club room.

Dancing with Kanako was not like dancing with Mori. Kanako was certainly graceful and a good dancer but it wasn’t the same. In some ways, it was easier. Kanako didn’t distract Haruhi at all. But in some ways it was definitely harder. Mori had led her through their dancing that morning but Kanako was expecting Haruhi to lead. Haruhi kept losing track of the beat and stepping on poor Kanako’s feet. 

While she practiced, the other hosts amused themselves and Tamaki pouted. The twins commented about how Tamaki was too tall to dance the girl’s part, which Haruhi found ridiculous. Why should height matter? Mori certainly hadn’t let it bother him. He was currently twirling around the room with Hunny. She couldn’t really tell who was leading and she didn’t know if that was because of her inexperience or because of the way the two were dancing. Distracted by watching the cute sight, she tripped and fell on Kanako. When she apologized, Kanako offered her a flirty line that went completely over Haruhi’s head. The lesson was interrupted when Kanako’s fiancé arrived with a delivery. From the way they interacted, and the way Tamaki reacted, Haruhi could tell this was going to turn into an over the top plan. She’d make sure they had pain relievers when she got home. A headache was definitely in her future. Besides, all this dancing was more exercise than she was used to and she didn’t want to be too sore to dance with Mori again tomorrow morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all liked this! As always, feel free to let me know what you think!


	8. Do you trust me? Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And we are back to Mori's POV!

The week had flown by for Mori. His morning dance lessons with Haruhi had really paid off. She was much more relaxed when leading now and almost never stepped on his feet or tripped. He was both proud and impressed with how far she’d come in such a short amount of time! Even though she still expressed doubts in her dancing skills, Mori knew she would be fine at the party tonight. Well, she’d be fine as far as dancing went. He was still not pleased with Tamaki’s “master plan”. 

Whether by luck or wisdom, Tamaki had neglected to fill Mori and Hunny in on the details until the day of the party. If he had known, Mori would have tried to stop him or warn Haruhi. It was currently lunch time and Mori knew Haruhi had an exam that day. There was no way he’d be able to reach her and even if he could it would only distract her. Mori shot a glare at Tamaki just thinking about it. Since Mori’s version of a glare was a one centimeter narrowing of his eyes and Tamaki was an oblivious idiot he didn’t notice. Hunny, naturally, did. 

“Is this about the plan?” Hunny asked quietly. Mori nodded slightly. Hunny sighed. He wasn’t thrilled with it either but at least it wasn’t as bad as Plan A had been. Or Plan B. In fact, Plan W (the master plan) was easily the least terrible option. Tamaki had assured them days ago that he could handle everything. It was only through a series of texts this morning to their group chat (Haruhi didn’t have a phone to speak up for herself) that he had given them any indication about what the plan was at all. Originally, the twins were supposed to kidnap Haruhi from the dance floor (Mori was a little concerned with how good they were at). Before Mori could snap, Hunny had interjected that since they were in charge of hair, makeup, and her costume they needed to have the room set up before she got there. The twins had put up a bit of a fight but Hunny’s logic was infallible and they reluctantly conceded in the end. They promised to tell Haruhi about the plan during a class break but Mori honestly didn’t trust them to give her the necessary details. He was confident that if she knew she was supposed to be kidnapped she would flat out refuse. He had been so busy focusing on remaining calm, he had missed his opportunity to help write the fake confession letter. He didn’t know what it would say but he was sure it would be mortifying. He also didn’t approve of meddling in other people’s relationships. Although it was highly unlikely, what if the boy accepted the fake letter as real and wanted to date Haruhi? Mori accidentally snapped his chopstick in half. It was going to be a long day.

The party started out typically enough. Hordes of girls, grandiose decorations, and Tamaki being extra. Haruhi made an off-hand comment about fancy tuna and all the hosts but Hunny and Mori immediately made a big deal about it. Mori felt himself become even more fed up with the evening. As if the plan wasn’t enough they had to publicly embarrass her too? Thankfully, the rest of the hosts had extremely short attention spans and their minds quickly moved back to the party.

Mori had intended to pull Haruhi aside to warn her fully once the others were distracted with the dance but he had underestimated the girls. Not only was he immediately asked to dance but Haruhi was also surrounded by admirers (although they were shy enough to hid behind a pillar). Only a few minutes into the first dance, Kanako approached Haruhi to ask for a dance. It was the signal Tamaki had been waiting for. He gave the command for Hunny and Mori to move. As soon as they grabbed her he felt her stiffen up and he was filled with self-loathing. Why was he going along with this again? Just as he was about to stop and apologize, he felt her relax in his grip like she did when they were dancing. He was so surprised he kept moving on auto pilot until they reached the room.

As soon as they released her, Mori expected Haruhi to lose her temper. He knew he would have in her position. Instead, she just told them they didn’t have to be so forceful. Mori froze. Why wasn’t she angry? If he had Hunny’s observational powers, he would have noticed her slight blush as soon as she realized who had grabbed her. He would have noticed the look of trust on her face. And he would have noticed that she had leaned into Mori as if Hunny wasn’t even there. Hunny also noticed his cousin’s confusion but decided to let him work out this one on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it took me a literal year to update! Writer's Block, when your imaginary friends won't talk to you, am I right? But I'm back! And I have a new year's resolution to finish this story. I won't leave it forever and I promise to update more regularly! Thank you to anyone who reads this and feel free to let me know what you think! Next chapter, I'll finish up the night of the dance.


End file.
